(Credit: OpenAI)
ChatGPT is giving out its brand new phone number to anyone who wants it, as part of an "experimental" effort to court new users.
We can hear the old-school infomercial now: "Got a question? Our AI can answer it. Just call 1-800-CHATGPT. That's 1-800-242-8478."
So naturally, we picked up the phone to talk to ChatGPT. Because that's what we do in the year 2024. Happily, OpenAI says it will never call or text you first.
"Hi, I'm ChatGPT, an AI assistant," a female AI voice answered. "Our conversation may be reviewed for safety. How can I help you?"
We asked what the weather was, which the chatbot could not answer since its data only goes up to October 2023, with no real-time information. Fail. Our next question about the name of the current US president came with some caveats as well: "It's Joe Biden, unless something has changed." After that, it was time to end the conversation.
OpenAI recommends calling ChatGPT for "creative writing or brainstorming, ...recommendations (recipes, travel ideas, etc.), or [to] chat about general topics like news, hobbies, or trivia." For anything more advanced, including access to ChatGPT Search and the ability to upload images and files or generate images, you'll need to use the app with a proper ChatGPT account.
"This is the first time we are enabling access to ChatGPT through WhatsApp messaging and phone calls," OpenAI says. "We expect to continue improving 1800-ChatGPT as we better understand its usage."
As a major limitation, you can only talk to ChatGPT for 15 minutes per month, which likely amounts to only a few quick exchanges or maybe one full conversation. Those in the US can also text ChatGPT with a US number. On WhatsApp, anyone in a ChatGPT-supported country can text the AI.
WhatsApp also has an unspecified daily limit. OpenAI "may adjust usage limits based on capacity if needed." Once you hit the limit, OpenAI (unsurprisingly) encourages you to download the app to keep chatting.
"It's core to our mission to make tools like ChatGPT broadly available so that people can experience the benefits of AI," OpenAI tells PCMag. The company is also targeting those without "consistent access to high-speed data, [which] can be difficult and costly for many."
The phone and WhatsApp announcement came as part of OpenAI's holiday PR push, dubbed the "12 days of OpenAI." During this time, the company has also announced ChatGPT Search for free users and released its Sora AI video generator.